The Grand Boulevard is the birthplace of
the Budapest electric tram: this is where the first such vehicle (designed
and manufactured by Siemens&Halske) started its way from in front of
the Nyugati pályaudvar (Western Station), and ran to the crossing of Király
utca. All this on a meter-gauge track using conduit,
built as an experiment to see if electric trams are feasible and safe.

All three vehicles (two motorcars and one trailer, barely visible to the left) meeting at Oktogon in November 1887- the same spot nowadays

The location was chosen because the yet incomplete Nagykörút (this word translates best into "Grand Boulevard", so I'm going to use
it from now on) did
not have any public transportation yet - other boulevards of the city were
already served by horse trams. Upon the favorable reception
of the experiment, the newly formed company BVV started to build the
Grand Boulevard electric tramway in its then full length between Nyugati
and Boráros tér, this time on normal (1435 mm) gauge.

The Grand Boulvard is a colloquial term.
When we say it, we usually mean the Pest half-ring
consisting of Szent István körút ("St. Stephen Boulevard" between
Margaret bridge and Nyugati), Teréz körút ("Therese Boulvard"
between Nyugati and Király utca),
Erzsébet körút ("Elisabeth
Boulevard" between Király utca and Blaha Lujza tér), József
körút ("Joseph Boulevard" between Blaha Lujza tér and Üllői
út) and Ferenc körút ("Franz Boulevard" between Üllői út
and Petőfi bridge). The "Grand Boulevard tram routes" however do
not end at the two ends of this half-ring, but continue on the other side
of the Danube. Routes 4 and 6 only have two separate stops, in order to distribute
the passenger load on the southern end.

Special remarks: The route runs
almost entirely on tracks on semi-reservation. This is necessary, because the Grand
Boulevard is usually congested all over the day. The result: despite infavorable
traffic light timings, the tram is the quickest transportation method around
here during rush hours (except when careless motorists are blocking the
way of the tram in crossing streets).
During the night route 6 keeps running with a 15-minute headway, so this is a 24/7 tram line (barring maintenance pauses).

The stop Mechwart liget (named after an engineer - and later president - of the Ganz company) features a middle platform isle.

There are two major bends after this stop.The first is at Bem József utca. If you look at the Y-shaped
turnout in the background of the picture to the left, you might guess that this used to be a junction
for trams. From here on we ride through a quite narrow part of Margit körút (picture to the right). In fact, this street used to be
so narrow that trams used it in one direction only - the other direction
was winding its way through neighbouring streets: Bem József utca, Bem József
tér, Frankel Leó utca and Henger utca.

Lost
rails: Bem József utca (Királyhegyi utca on the map below)

Above you can see how trams (the blue-ish lines) were routed around here until 1937. This section was also part of the "Right Riverside Railroad" freight
train route between the Szentendre HÉV (vicinal) line and Déli
pályaudvar (Southern Station). Also, a tram depot used to exist near
today's Bem József tér (then called Pálffy tér) in Feketesas
utca/Tölgyfa utca: its remnants can be seen in the facade of a modern
office building.

Before reaching Török utca: north-bound tram 17 to the left, south-bound tram 17 to the right in the background.

The biggest "attraction" of the interconnected tramway network launched in 2016 is the junction at Margit körút: trams on line 17 heading towards Széll Kálmán tér take a different street (Török utca) than trams of the same line coming from Széll Kálmán tér. (Frankel Leó út, joined by route 19 and 41 there).

Margit híd (Margaret bridge) is
a Parisienne-style arch bridge designed designed by french architects
in the 1870's as the second permanent bridge between Buda and Pest.
It was built including tracks for the horse tram, but the tram companies
of the already united cities were unable to negotiate who would operate
this important connection, so the first train went over the bridge in 1879,
after PKVT (the transit operator in Pest) bought BKVT (the
transit operator in Buda). The bridge was rebuilt several times,
including once after it was blown up by german troops in 1944 in the middle
of rush-hour traffic (presumably by mistake).

The bridge
was last renovated in 2010-12. This renewal included a widening (wider lanes,
wider clearance for the tram, plus a bicycle lane), and the reconstruction
of some old architectural elements that were not restored after WW2.

There's a stop in the middle of the bridge,
at the side-bridge to Margit-sziget (Margaret island). There's
also a 30-degree bend there, making the bridge quite special ("Y"-shaped).

Hint: Margaret island is
a beautiful place to have a walk under the huge trees as a way of relaxing.
There are also two public baths there, plus a small zoo.

First map: Jászai Mari
tér with tram crossing in 1925. Next map: the same place in 1966: route
2 and 15 is separated by the tracks of the Grand Boulevard routes. Pictures:
the one-track stub terminus of route 15 in front of where now the McDonald's
restaurant is.

If you face north, you'll
see shady Pozsonyi út, where route 15 ran until 1977. It wasn't
connected to the Grand Boulevard routes either, but to the tracks of route
2 on the other side of the bridgehead. The connection was removed after
WW2, but route 15 has remained for a few decades...

The section between Jászai Mari tér
and Nyugati pályaudvar still looks like how Grand Boulevard
was planned in the 1870/80s.

It's hard to believe that this part
of the city once housed mills and a few of the the most infamous pleasure-grounds!

The Lipótváros ("Leopoldstadt")
route of BKVT was one of the first victims of the "let's not delay Grand
Boulevard routes with diverging/crossing routes"-policy. It only existed
between 1907 and 1932 as a by-pass route (yellow line on the map) to ease
the overload of the Small Boulevard routes running in Bajcsy-Zsilinszky
út (marked with blue line on the map).

Unfortunately it can be hard to take decent photos here, because the sun rarely shines deep enough into the street to shed nice light onto the trams and the background, too. And then there's also vehicular traffic getting in the way.

Lost
rails: Visegrádi utca and Bihari János utca

Only a few blocks from
Szemere
utca lays another "lost rail location", namely Visegrádi utca.
This is where the BURV (a tram company - later a BKVT subsidiary - operating
routes to Újpest and Rákospalota) services have turned onto
the Grand Boulvard to use a short section of it as a reversing loop.
After 1950 this reversing loop was rebuilt so that only depot and special
rides would use the tracks in the crossing of Visegrádi utca and
Szent
István körút. It was abandoned around 1981.

Until the very early 1990's
you could also see some lost rails in Bihari János utca: this used
to be another reversing loop (there were three of them as you can see on
the map on the left-hand side) for the services starting from Nyugati
pályaudvar, but then it was used as a stub terminus for route 49 until
the late 1960's. The connection to the Grand Boulevard was abandoned in
the 1970's.

Left: the very first Combino
Plus (or Supra) on its first ride ever on the Grand Boulevard.To the right: now an every-day
moment in the same stop.

This wonderful railway station was designed
by the best architects of the time (the fragile-looking iron roof frame
was designed by the Eiffel (as in Eiffel Tower) Bureau for example), and
built in 1877. The old railway station that used to stood here, was one
of the most important stops of the first horse tram in 1866, as this institution
was Budapest's first railway station, where the first railroad in Hungary started out from in 1846. The old building was in the way of the newly
designed Grand Boulevard in the 1870's, so the new one - which you can
see today - was built a bit to the north. Until the 1980's the place was
not a real city square, but a street junction with very heavy public transportation
load.

Regular and special vehicles
in the Nyugati tér stop

This is also where the first electric tram
started out in 1887, and because of its importance as a traffic node, three
reversing loops were built around the surrounding blocks. Between 1977
and 1982 the square was rebuilt: two buildings were demolished, to round
off the sharp bend between Szent István körút and Teréz körút,
and to make room for a new bus terminal and a parking lot.

Interestingly the originaly
layout of the square - now called Nyugati tér, and known under various
designations over the decades like Berlini tér (Berlin square),
Vilmos
császár tér (Emperor William square), Marx tér (after the
father of communism) - was more of a deformed Y, because this was the point
where the Grand Boulevard and the Small Boulavard (Kiskörút) - consisting
of Bajcsy-Zsilinszky út, Károly körút, Múzeum körút
and Fővám körút - diverged. The not really ring-shaped Small Boulevard
was more important in the beginning, because its history reached back to
hundreds of years, as it was built right around the medieval city walls
of Pest. It was also BKVT horse-tram territory with Váci út as its
continuation, just like Szent István körút and Margit híd,
the first rail-bound link to Buda. The then-newly built Grand Boulevard
however fell into the hands of the electric tram company BVV (later BVVV).
This was a bit frustrating, because passengers arriving with BVVV services
had had to change for BKVT services. And basically this stayed until the
companies merged.

Early
electric trams

The first experimental electric
tram service had a small carbarn and power generator right in front of
the railway station (l.). A few decades later Nyugati tér (then
called Berlini tér) became a gigantic tram juction with trams arriving
and departing from and to every direction (r.).

Hint: although Nyugati
pályaudvar has most of the unpleasant qualities of a large and overused
railway station, it's worth to check out its architecture: the wooden roof
held by the fragile cast-iron frame, the Royal Waiting Hall built for
Emperor Francis Joseph the First, and the mostly-crowded ticket office
in the same style. And the station also features what we probably should
call the
nicest McDonald's fast food restaurant in the world :-)

Lost
rails: Váci út and the Visegrádi utca-Kádár utca "giant
loop"

Nowadays you won't see much
tramlife around here except for route 4 and 6. Okay, they're probably the
busiest tram service in Europe, but the place was far more full of trams
when the Váci út routes still had their termini around here.

In the last decades, these
routes were 3, 12, 14, 33 and 55. Normally route 33 had its terminus in
the middle of Váci út, close to Nyugati tér, and the other
routes went into a long reversing loop located in the narrow neighbouring
streets (see drawings above). Of course from time to time there were exceptions,
but the main rule stayed: unidirectional sets turned in the loop (marked
with an arrow on the map on the left hand side), bidirectional ones at
the stub track in Váci út (marked with an annor on the other map).
The large reversing loop inside the streets was connected to the Grand
Boulevard via Visegrádi út.

The two-track terminus in
Visegrádi
utca on a photo by Tim Boric. To the right: a Bengali
tram leaving the loop by turning onto Váci út.

The Váci út trams
were replaced by the M3 underground line in three stages between 1982 and
89.

Lost
rails: Bajcsy-Zsilinszky út

Bajcsy-Zsilinszky út
(originally Váczi körút, then Vilmos Császár útja), Pest's
entrance from north was part of the first horse-tram route in 1866 (together
with Váci út). Because the rails in it belonged to the BKVT, most of
the inner-city tram routes were dominated by this firm, while the other
company, BVVV had tried to connect its other services via the Grand Boulevard,
which "belonged" to them. The two companies' networks were united by the
joint transportation company BSzKRt, but in the 1930's they separated Szent
István körút from the rest of the Grand Boulevard again. It was united
(again) after WW2. By the seventies, the jaws of Bajcsy-Zsilinszky út was
terminus of route 47, 49 and 52, but there was no service that would continue
from here, although the rail connection was still there. Note: this terminus
was the remainder of a reversing loop in the
neighbouring streets.

As you can see, the Grand
Boulevard became "straighter" with the demolition of that old building
which can be seen on the picture on the left-hand side. The UV triple-set
in the middle comes from Bajcsy-Zsilinszky út, and is a depot ride.
(Photo: Tim Boric).

The Bajcsy-Zsilinszky
út tram line was closed in 1980. Since then routes 47 and 49 terminate at
Deák
tér.

Lost
rails: Podmaniczky utca

We see the Grand Boulevard
vertically, and Podmaniczky utca horizontally here.

Podmaniczky utca was
part of BVV's second normal-gauge route in 1889 between the Pest
bridgehead of the Chain Bridge (Lánchíd) and Városliget.
It not just crossed the Grand Boulevard, it was also connected to it. Later
the jaws of Podmaniczky utca and the Boulevard became the end point
of route 46 connecting Nyugati Pályaudvar (Western Station) and
Keleti
pályaudvar (Eastern Station) with a stub track. The line was given
up in 1949 between the inner city and the Boulevard, then in 1952 between
the Boulevard and Szinyei Merse Pál utca, and then in 1956 all tram
traffic in Podmaniczky utca was stopped. The successor of it was
the trolley bus.

Two more views around the tram stop:

... and now let's continue our way!

There's a crossover near the next stop
Oktogon,
used during temporary shortenings.

Oktogon (Octagon) was named after
its shape. This is where the elegant Andrássy út and the illustrious
Grand Boulevard cross each other. When you look at the way the road and
the trams are crossing Andrássy út, you can notice the big hump,
which is how the surface gets over the tunnel of the Milleneum
Subway Line. The subway tunnel was built over the large sewer tunnel
running under the Boulevard, hence the swell.

A panorama taken from south of Oktogon

Hint: it's worth to take
a walk in Andrássy út, especially towards the Milleneum Monument
at Hősök tere. Mansions, palaces, museums and villas are what you're
going to see, all built with the will to express the spiritual superiority
and newly-found wealth of Hungary inside the Austro-Hungarian Empire after the Compromise of 1867.

Morning and evening at Király utca

Panorama of the Grand Hotel Corinthia

Lost
rails: Király utca

The second tram line of BVV
to Városliget was opened in 1891 between Dózsa György út
and the Grand Boulevard. It was then extended into the inner city in a
couple of steps (1893 and 1906). In 1949 this was the fist tram line to
be permanently supplemented with trolley buses (trolley line 70 to be exact
- the route number was celebrating the 70th birthday of the soviet dictator
Joseph Stalin.).

The tram is crossed by trolley buses twice
after Király utca: first at Wesselényi utca (line 74 inbound),
then at Dohány utca (line 74 outbound). You are also passing by
beautiful eclectic-style mansions, the magnificent Hotel Royal (it's now called Grand Hotel Corinthia, but to us it's just Hotel Royal), Madách Theatre,
and the New York Palace.

Our next big stop is at Blaha Lujza
tér. This is where the Grand Boulevard crosses Rákóczi út, the busiest
avenue of the inner city. This place wasn't a large square until the National
Theater (earlier Popular Theater, built in 1875) was torn down in 1965.
Unfortunately the square was not really trimmed ever since: something is
missing, although some of the neighbouring buildings look quite magnificent.
Another unfortunate thing: the small park in the middle is mostly occupied
by homeless people.

Because of the metro line M2 and the tram
routes 28, 37/37A and 62 coming from the suburbs this is the busiest stop of
the Grand Boulevard routes. In rush hours you might not get a chance to
get on board of the first incoming tram because of the herds of people
going to and from different directions.

Hint: You should take some
time, sit down and have a coffee in the recently
renovated New York Palace, which is located on the corner of Dob utca and Teréz körút, somewhere between the stops Wesselényi utca and Blaha
Lujza tér.

Lost
routes: Rákóczi út

To the left: the junction
in the underground conduit days. To the right: trams in Rákóczi út
crossing the Boulevard, with the old National Theatre in the background.

Rákóczi út has been the
main traffic path to Pest since ages, so it was logical for the BKVT to extend
their horse tram network here (and further) in 1868. It was one
of the busiest sections in the electric tram years, too, with sometimes
10 or 15 different routes using the tracks. The Rákóczi út
tram was closed because of the metro line M2 running beneath it. Since
then much of the bloom of the street has vanished, but the public transportation
performance on the surface is still immense in the form of buses. It was a big mistake to close this tram line!

There's also a crossover located near the
tram stop, and a connecting track to Népszínház utca, where routes
28, 37/37A and 62 run. This connecting track is used by the Grand Boulevard
routes to enter service from depot Hungária, and of course by special
runs and transports.

The Grand boulevard was once
crossed here, too, first by the steam tram going to Új Köztemető (the line that later became tram route 37), then by route 2. Also, some
routes have had their terminus on the other side of the square in form
of a reversing loop around the department store now called "Centrum
Corvin" (covered in ugly aluminium sheets). The name of the old terminus "Rókus kórház" refers to the
old, but still functioning hospital located next to the department store.
The terminus of the routes ending here was moved to its current location
in Népszínház utca so that they won't obstruct the Grand Boulevard
routes while crossing their tracks.

The next section of the Boulevard gets
a bit less patrician. Some of the most down and out parts of the city are
only a few streets away from here. It's not near
as bad as it was twenty-odd years ago, but the rehabilitation of those inner
city skid rows goes slowly.

I hope a bit of urban folklore does not
ruin your appetite for more Budapest: Rákóczi tér and the neighbouring
streets were the center of the "red-light business" in the communist days,
and therefore it was considered a quite infamous place. That's over now,
and the nice old market hall from 1894 might give you a hint that once this
was a blooming downtown area.

Lost
rails: Baross utca

Contemporary map of the
Baross
utca line between Kálvin tér and Orczy tér.

Our next stop is again a
once-existing and long-abandoned tram junction: Baross utca
sported the first normal-gauge electric tram
line in Budapest, opened in 1889. The line, connecting the inner city to
Orczy
tér was closed in 1953.

The stop at Harminckettesek tere (formerly known as Baross
utca)

The tracks were replaced around here in 2012, this can be recognised on the different surface covering (concrete instead of asphalt)

And our next stop is again of "lost rails"
fame. As for the present, this is a stop, in which you will very likely
see two south-bound trams standing in a row. There's also a crossover at the northbound platform, so if there's a service disruption, this is one of the places where trams can reverse.

Lost
rails: Üllői út

To the left: the crossing
around 1900. To the right: the early seventies with UV's on the Grand Boulevard.

The Üllői út tram
fell victim of the M3 metro line. The section that crossed the Grand Boulevard
was closed in 1976. Until then this was another vital pulse of the tram
network.

Hint: the Museum
of Applied Arts is located in a characteristic "hungarian art nouveau"
building nearby. You can see it on the picture above to the left.

Our next stop is where you can change to
tram line 51 or 51A, which have a stub terminus in Mester utca,
perpendicular to the Grand Boulevard. This is where depot runs of route
4 and 6 leave their normal route for depot Hungária.

Boráros tér was the southern endpoint
of some Grand Boulevard routes until Petőfi híd (bridge) was opened
in 1937. The square was also crossed by some north-to-south services. After
WW2 it was the southern end point of route 2, and northern end point of
some tram routes heading for South-Pest. It also became the end
point of the Csepel Suburban Railway in 1951, and more and more buses during the
decades until it became a vital traffic node for southern Pest.

Hint: The trams of route
4 and 6 are hard to photograph from the pavements of the bridge because
of the heavy car traffic, but you can take nice pictures of
route 2 trams running beneath.

This bridge is one of the newer ones, it was opened in 1937. It was blown up in WW2, just like the others, and was then rebuilt, just like the others.

The bridge has a dominant bulge, which can be made even more dramatic with a telescopic lense :)

Two views of Petőfi híd: one taken from Lágymányosi híd, and one from Gellért-hegy

Hint: From Petőfi híd you can take wide
panorama views of the city, Buda Castle, Szabadság híd (Liberty
Bridge), with the Buda Hills in the background!

The Goldmann György tér stop during winter

Hint: the junction
is a nice photo-site, but be careful for the vehicular and tram traffic!

Lost
rails: a reversing loop at Goldmann György tér

Until a few years ago there
was a double-track reversing loop in the middle of a park just after the
bridge. It was originally used by various routes like 6, 46, 66, but after
1972 it became the reserve/resting station of the Boulevard routes. Unfortunately
the site was then sold, and the loop was removed. Now the whole area is
a big university and IT-technology campus.

And now comes the point where route 4 and
6 part ways: the first goes straight forward in Irinyi József utca,
while the latter turns right, into Karinthy Frigyes út.

The stretch in Karinthy Frigyes út
can be nice with all the trees - under the right lighting conditions.

On 19. May 2006 the reversing loop for
the terminus of route 6 was abandoned.

To the left: the tram first
turned onto Siroki utca, then onto Váli utca (to the right).

The terminus of route 6 was the last street-running
inner-city reversing loop in Budapest. It was also quite steep and in addition
the 54-meter-long Ganz CSMG2 double-sets looked great in the sharp bends.
Passengers had to alight in the narrow Váli utca, while boarding took place a bit further, on
the side of Móricz Zsigmond körtér:

Some things changed, other
things stayed the same: the tram stop was rebuilt in 2003, the old house
in the background remained run-down :(

Passengers boarded the trams from the sidewalk.
Unfortunately the new terminus is a bit further away from this site, so
the closure of the loop was a negative event in the sight of most Budapest
tram fans.

The reason behind the "Y"-shaped line endings was to lift some traffic off of Móricz Zsigmond
körtér. Until 1972 route 4 turned onto Fehérvári út and went
all the way to Budafok. Now it's just a two-track stub terminus
with a connecting track to the Fehérvári út lines for special runs.